To Make Me Bright
by youherotype
Summary: When Emma Swan takes her son to parent teacher conference night at his school, the last thing she expects to find is the guy she's been hooking up with for the past few weeks sitting at the desk across from her. CS Teacher / Parent AU.
1. Chapter 1

**When Emma takes her son to parent teacher conference night at his school, the last thing she expects to find is the guy she's been hooking up with for the past few weeks sitting at the desk across from her. CS Teacher / Parent UA**

* * *

Looking back on it, she should have known something was wrong from the start. It started three weeks ago, after another long night of chasing down a bail jumper, only to have them escape. She was tired, had sore muscles, freezing cold, not in the mood to go home, and in desperate need of a drink.

And he was sitting there at the end of the bar like an absolute sin, all shining blue eyes, raised eyebrows, and rum. How was she to resist?

She didn't. And she didn't the next Saturday, or the following one, or the one after that. They weren't dating, they only texted enough to know when and where to meet, she didn't even know his last name, and she liked it that way.

Yeah, looking back she really should have known something was going on.

* * *

"Mom have you seen my math folder, I can't find it?" Henry called to her as he came practically running down the hallway into the kitchen where she sat at the kitchen table sipping on her coffee.

In response, Emma only looked at the super hero covered folder sitting on the edge of the table where he had left it less than five minutes ago.

"Oh," he said smiling shyly as he picked it up and shoved it in his back pack "I guess I forgot."

"Guess so kid." She responded standing up and placing her coffee mug in the sink.

"Ready to go?" He nodded, walking towards the front door bouncing on the balls of his feet before she caught up to him. For an eleven year old kid, he still was surprisingly excited to go to school. She might have found it a little strange, but she thought it was a good thing. If she had been as excited about school as he was she might have finished it.

"It's parent teacher conference night tonight." Henry blurted out as she closed and locked the door. She paused turning to look at him with raised eyebrows.

Really, the kid could remember entire chapters of a story but telling her about important things like this was just too much to handle.

"Why am I just now hearing about this?"

"Because I was going to tell you on Tuesday but I forgot?" She sighed thinking of how she could rearrange her stake out tonight to still be able to go to meet with his teacher.

"And you forgot every day after that too?"

"I'm sorry! I won't next time promise, but you'll be there right?"

"Yes, I'll be there." she smiled at him as they made their way down the apartment stairwell and into the car wondering what the teacher Henry thought so highly of was like.

* * *

After school she sat with Henry in the hallway outside of his teachers classroom waiting for him to finish with a parent and student. The fifth grade hallway was decorated in bright colors, the small lockers were blue on one wall, and red across from them. The floor a tiled pattern of a rainbow, and the walls covered in drawings and pictures that the students had made.

She smiled at Henry at he talked about his day at school telling her about a new art project he was working on, wondering how long this would take. She really did need to track down this guy, and her baby sitter didn't like having to work on such short notice.

Just as the clock dragged five minutes passed their scheduled time and she was starting to grow impatient, the door behind them opened, a mother and father along with their daughter stepped out of the classroom.

"Hi Henry." The little girl said, pigtails bouncing with her as she walked away.

"Hey Grace." he responded before heading towards the open door tugging on Emma's hand excitedly. She chuckled at his excitement.

"I'm coming kid no need to pull." She entered the class room first looking out the big windows that took up nearly the entire back wall, the desks were arranged in infuriatingly perfect rows, and the chalkboard rubbed clean except for the words 'Welcome Parents' written in crisp elegant handwriting.

"Would you mind closing the door being you please, it lets an awful draft in?" She turned around halfway to the door before it dawned on her. Before the words and the voice that was speaking them registered with her brain. She froze, slightly in panic not knowing what now to do.

"Is there something the matter?" He asked drawing closer. "Bloody hel-" He yelled, though managed to cut himself off apparently thinking of the confused looking Henry starring at his mother with concern.

 _Shit, shit, shit, shit._ She thought to herself on a continuous loop turning slowly to meet him. How was it even possible that Killian, the guy she had been hooking up with the last few weeks was her sons teacher?

 _Well that's the problem with not exchanging any personal details._ She thought to herself. Like last names, what you enjoyed to do, and maybe what you do for a living?

She turned around slowly eyes wide in both panic and surprise and saw that his face very much matched hers. He looked different than all the times she had seen him before. He always felt a little rough around the edges. Hair disheveled, wearing crisp black button down shirts, black pants, and boots. Accent thicker sounding than it was now, eyes sharper, his entire demeanor so different now that he was here.

Now he looked… softer. He wore a pale blue shirt, and a black blazer rolled up to his elbows. Dark jeans and black shoes. There was a pair of thick rimmed glasses folded in his jacket pocket, and aside from the obvious surprise written on his face, he seemed happy.

"Mom?" Henry finally asked, breaking the long and awkward silence. She turned to face him trying to plaster a smile on her face before she walked closer to him.

"Can you wait outside for just a minute kid?" She asked "I just need to talk to Mr. Jones" She fought back a laugh at the sick twisted humor of it "For a minute alone. Okay?"

"Okay." he shrugged, sounding if anything a bit confused but finding apparently nothing wrong with it.

As he passed Killian - _Mr. Jones -_ he passed him a greeting to which he responded with a genuine smile.

"Hello Henry." he said as the young boy exited the room and closed the door behind him, leaving them alone.

For a moment neither of them said anything, both looking at each other afraid to say anything. But it really only did last for a moment.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked incredulously. She wanted to yell, wanted to scream, suddenly irrationally angry that he was here. She whispered it instead, yell whispered so that Henry couldn't hear on the other side of the wall.

"What the hell am I doing here? What the bloody hell are _you_ doing here?!"

"You never told me you were a teacher!"

"You never told me you were a mother." She paused thinking that he was right. That was their unspoken arrangement, neither of them offered up any information about them selves and the other didn't ask. It worked that way, it was easy and simple.

But now this, _this_ was anything but.

"I can't believe this is happening." She said placing her hands on her forehead, thinking that maybe if she hit her head against the wall this would all just disappear.

"You're the one who didn't want us to know any thing about each other."

"Well you certainly weren't arguing about it." She responded glaring at him, not liking the fact that he was starting to look amused. He was looking at her strangely, an expression she hadn't seen on him before -and she had seen quite a few.

"Alright, then what do you propose we do now love?" She shot him a warning look at the word love.

"This is over." She responded crossing her arms over her chest. He smiled brightly at her, moving closer to the door, stepping closer to her.

"Wonderful, shall I bring Henry back in?" He stepped closer again until he was about to brush past her. She pushed her hand against his chest, pushing him back slightly as he looked at her with a cheeky smile and raised eyebrows.

"No I mean I'm not sleeping with you again." He looked down at her hand, still resting on his chest. She pulled it back quickly angry all over again at the situation that she had found an unfairly attractive man that she now couldn't have a 'relationship' with.

"It's bad form to lie darling." He stepped closer again thought this time intentionally, invading her space as his voice lowered and _there_ was the Killian that she knew. The change was instantaneous, merging from fifth grade teacher to sultry in seconds.

She tried not to get sucked into the pull of his gaze, but he was starring at her so intensely it was hard not to. His thoughts were basically screaming at her what he was thinking about, and the fact that he was looking at her so suggestively wasn't helping either.

Taking a large step backwards she crossed her arms over her chest again and looking him square in the eye, this time not getting lulled under his charm again.

"Look I'd appreciate if we could just keep things professional Killian." He smirked at her again, still not having returned to the teacher.

"That's Mr. Jones to you." He winked at her then, _actually_ winked at her. If he hadn't had already pulled the door open and was busy apologizing to her son about their rudeness, she might have slapped him.

Or kissed him. Or slapped and then kissed him. Or really any combination of those things would have worked.

Sitting there for the next half hour watching as he talked to her son so happily and innocently, she found it hard to believe what had just happened. She played her part well, smiling when Killi- Mr. Jones complimented Henry and talked of how well he was doing in class. Laughed when Henry joked with his teacher and smiled proudly when Henry showed her his art project.

But all the while she could feel him watching her. Could feel his gaze slowing burning every place that his eyes touched until eventually, she thought she might be consumed by the flames entirely.

* * *

 **So here's the first chapter to my new multi chapter fic _To Make Me Bright_. The title comes from the song 'Make You Better' by The Decemberists that you really should listen to. This was originally a one shot I posted on my tumblr (youherotype) that I got requests to continue, so who knows how long this will end up being! **

**Hope you guys and enjoy and leave me a review telling me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Sitting in her car, big oversized sunglasses covering half her face, slumped down so far her forehead just barely touching the top of the steering wheel, she couldn't help but call herself a coward.

It had been just over a week since she 'meet' Henry's teacher who just so happened to be the guy she was sleeping with -if fate was real it was one sick son of a bitch. Since that week every time she had gone to drop off or pick up Henry from school she had gone about it as quickly as possible, and took to trying to cover herself. If Henry found it odd that his mother was now dressing like some sort of amateur spy from a bad action movie, he hadn't said anything about it.

She hadn't heard from Killian since their fun little discovery, thankfully, she added. If things were like this now, then fine, that's the way it had to be. But seeing or hearing from him would pop this nice little bubble that she had built up around herself. She was aware of what had happened, but was for the time, choosing to ignore it as much as humanly possible.

The trusty Emma Swan method.

Sighing with relief as children started to pour out of the open doors of the elementary school, Emma straightened up a little bit and switched on the radio to the station Henry always asked for. She saw him heading towards her and smiled brightly at him as he waved to her, saying goodbye to his friends before opening the car door and get it.

"Hey kid, how was your day?"

"Good," he said buckling his seat belt and turning to face her. "Did you know that plants make their own food?!"

"I did, but you're welcome to tell me all about it." She smiled at the excitement on his face, happy he was enjoying school. She started the car again, putting it in drive about to pull out of her parking spot, when she saw him.

She had never seen him here before, the 'disguise' had really just been a safety precaution, to make her feel more comfortable.

But there Killian, 'Mr. Jones' was, walking out of the building heading towards his car looking as dashing as usual. He was dressed similarly to the last time she had seen him. Though now he wore a dark blue plaid print button down, a navy blazer on top, and his normal scruff was starting to turn into a full beard. He waved to a couple of students who called his name on his way before heading towards the direction of the parking lot towards his car.

Resisting the strong urge to duck back down behind the wheel and hide, she continued to pull out of the spot like planned, all the while nodding along to Henry's eleven year old rendition of photosynthesis.

She cursed the parking lot, damning the person who had designed it that it only had one entrance and exit and she would have to pass him to get to it. While her yellow bug was wonderful in many aspects, the fact that the windows were never tinted was not one of them.

She drove past him unbearably slowly -it was a school parking lot, she couldn't exactly run a kid over in her mad dash to escape him 'safety first' and all -just as she felt calm passing his car where he stood fishing for his keys, he looked up, as if sensing something. His eyes somehow managed to find hers in the rearview mirror like he knew it was her. Which seemed unlikely, she had never driven her car to his place, had always taken a cab, he didn't even know what kind of car she drove. But there he was looking at her like he knew.

She sped away after that, breaking perhaps a bit harder than necessary at the stop sign before turning and racing like hell to get out of there.

And if she spent the rest of the night picturing blue oceans and waves, then she told herself it was purely coincidence, and not that son of a bitch fate.

* * *

"Shit," Emma mumbled, starring at yesterdays math homework sitting on the kitchen counter forgotten. Henry must have forgotten it, she thought to herself picking it up and grabbing her purse before heading out the door. He must have not yet realized he forgot it or he would have called by now, certainly not the first time that would have happened.

All the while to the school she was nervous, jittery just at the prospect of being in the same building as Killian. it was foolish, she knew this but she couldn't help her nerves. But again, she told herself she wouldn't have to actually see him. She would drop the paper off at the front office and an office clerk would bring it to Henry's classroom, like had happened a million times before.

Entering the school she headed towards the office, ignoring the brightly colored paper flyers telling her about exciting up coming school events. She knocked on the office door before entering seeing it was a nice lady named Belle sitting there. She had talked to Belle a few times before, and always got a good feeling from the brunette.

"Oh no, what did Henry do this time?" The receptionist asked jokingly, smiling at her.

"Forgot his homework." She held up the paper as evidence and placed it on the counter.

"Been a while since that happened! Must have been in a rush this morning."

"He's always rushing off towards something." She smiled back at her before pointing towards the door.

"I've got to get back to work."

"Tracking someone down?"

"Someone's always done something they don't want to face the consequence of. Makes my job easy." She shrugged as she headed towards the door before Belle's voice stopped her.

"Shoot," She heard her mumble.

"What is it?" Emma asked.

"All the clerks are on lunch break." She shrugged thinking that someone could just take it there when they get back. "I'd run it there myself, but I'm not supposed to leave the office empty. " She sighed, looking at Emma sheepishly.

"Would you mind taking it to him? You know the way don't you? It's be such a big help." Emma swallowed, looking at her near pleading face, wondering what excuse she could use to get out of this that wasn't 'Oh shit I slept with my sons teacher now I can't see him'.

Thinking of nothing, she sighed snatching the paper perhaps a bit too harshly form Belle's hand before smiling at her, telling her it was no trouble at all, really, and stalking off toward the direction of the fifth graders hallway.

She slowed down her rapid stomping as she neared Henry's classroom, realizing that acting like a child wasn't going to change anything. She was a grown up and she could act mature about the entire situation, no matter how badly she didn't want to.

When she got there the door was open, a slight hum of talking, page turning, and pencils moving creating a somewhat relaxing sound. She peeked around the corner sheepishly, hoping to maybe get Henry's attention without attracting the attention of the teacher sitting at his desk with his back turned to her.

Henry was sitting on the far left in the middle of the class room, overly absorbed with a conversation he was having with a boy she didn't recognize, to notice her. Rolling her eyes at her cowardliness, but still not wanting to be overly rude, she raised her hand and knocked on the door frame.

Henry, Killian, and every other pair of eyes turned up at her at that, and Henry immediately rushed out of his chair over to her. Killian glanced at her for a moment, a look of remote interest on his face before turning back to the papers on his desk. Until a moment later his head snapped up so fast she would have thought someone slapped him. Apparently just now realizing that it was in fact her standing in his doorway.

She meet his gaze for only a minute before Henry reached her and asked what she was doing here. She tore his eyes away from his far too intense gaze before turning to Henry.

"You forgot this." She said holding out the paper to him. Relief rushed onto his face, as his hands reached out and took the paper, crinkling it slightly in his grip.

"Thanks mom! I thought I grabbed it." She smiled at him, motioning for him to go back to class.

"No problem kid, have a good rest of your day." She smiled at him as he raced back to his seat and tucked the paper carefully away into on of his many colored folders.

Sparing a quick glance back at Killian before she left, she immediately regretted her decision to look. He was still looking at her, eyes practically burning a hole in her head. His eyes flashed up to meet her's momentarily, their intense blues raging and a question on his lips.

Rather than waiting to see if he was going to do anything, she turned and started power walking in the direction she had came, relieved that he hadn't followed her.

Until she heard footsteps quickly gaining on her.

"Swan." He called. She kept walking at first, still wanting very much to not do this next awkward part, but then realized that she couldn't simply pretend she hadn't heard him and abruptly stopped moving, turning to face him.

Her sudden stop hadn't given him notice to stop walking either, resulting in him ending up much closer to her than she would have liked. She took a step backwards from him, plastering on a smile that just barely passed as polite on her face.

"Yes?" She asked, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

"Were you going to pretend like you hadn't heard me?" He raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged in response.

"I stopped didn't I?" She internally flinched at her rudeness, but found that she couldn't help it. She was still frustrated at him and the situation to bother right now.

In response he just looked at her questionably, head cocked, eyebrows scrunched together on his forehead. She sighed before speaking again, if not to just fill the tense silence that was beginning to settle around them.

"I don't see why it would have mattered. There's no reason for us to talk anyway."

"I could have wanted to talk about Henry." He countered to which she in turn, raised a pointed eyebrow at him.

"We both know you don't want to talk about Henry."

"I'm actually quite fond of the lad," He said as his eyes darkened a shade. "But no I don't want to talk about Henry."

"Then we have nothing to talk about." She responded, turning to leave again, getting this time three steps before he stopped her again.

"Bloody hell Emma." He said, nearly whispering 'hell' still being in a school. "Would you just talk to me for a minute?" She whirled on him, frustrated that he didn't get it.

"No Killian, I won't just talk to you for a minute. Don't you know how wrong this is? You're my sons teacher. The best thing for both of us is to forget that this ever happened" She was surprised by how dejected he looked, his entire face falling at his words. She sighed not wanting to feel guilty over doing the right thing.

"I very well know it's wrong Swan, but I can't forget. I've been trying, without success to forget you but it's proving to be an impossible task. It would seem you've left quite the mark." His soft smile was too much in the moment, reminded her of how after, when they had laid in his bed before she would flee, how he would get those smiles. Soft lazy smiles that made her heart want to beat. But now was not the time and place, now was not when there could have been a them -which there wouldn't have been anyway.

"It was just sex Killian, find someone new." She said tired of this conversation. He stiffened at that, attitude changing rapidly and eyes darkening again, though this time not in the good way.

"Perhaps I will." He said, leveling her with an angry look that she didn't entirely understand.

"Good." She meet his gaze for just a moment longer before turning on her heel and walking in the other direction, and this time he didn't stop her. She felt his eyes on her the entire time, until she eventually disappeared behind a corner.

As she walked through the school a strange feeling came over her, something that felt frighteningly close to nostalgia, creeping up her throat. But she shoved it down, pushed it into a box, and told it to go away. It was sex -good sex at that- but as she had said to him, that's all it was. And it was wrong, truly terribly, horribly, wrong. She knew that, she was well aware.

But then why couldn't she stop thinking about him? 

* * *

This wasn't supposed to get quite so angsty this soon, but apparently I just can't help my self. Hope you guys enjoyed and be sure to let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Wednesday mornings consisted of rushing Henry off to school, running a few errands, and then brunch at Granny's with Mary Margaret, Ruby, and Elsa. Or as Mary Margaret affectionately called it 'Girl's day'. The fact that it wasn't an entire day was something Emma thought about often, but never thought important enough to mention. The greater good and what not.

The 10:30 am crowd at Granny's consisted of a very few people aside from them, the reason behind Ruby suggesting they meet at that time. Still remembering when all the busiest shifts were from working at the little diner for most of her young life, it came in handy when they wanted to enjoy the atmosphere without all the people it usually came with.

Everything went as it normally did, Mary Margaret gushed about something sweet her husband, David, had done and how cute their son Leo -who was just a few years younger than Henry -was. Ruby gossiped about whichever new guy she was seeing, currently it was some mechanic who was sweet but not really her type. And Elsa talked about her sister Anna, and their latest adventure. It was comforting this routine. Sitting around a cheaply covered table in the squeaky vinyl booth, with the women that were her closest friends.

The good food also didn't hurt. Ever since she had moved to Storybrooke with Henry just after he was born, Granny's diner had been a favorite of hers. She always ordered the same thing for breakfast, an order of pancakes with hot chocolate and cinnamon.

Smiling into the still warm cup of hot chocolate in front of her, Emma listened to the ridiculous conversation Ruby and Mary Margaret were currently having, resisting the strong urge to roll her eyes at them.

"- I do like Billy Mary Margaret, that's why I'm seeing him."

"But if you really liked him you'd say you were dating him."

"Well that's why I'm not saying I'm dating him, it's because I don't _really_ like him." Ruby replied with a smirk that earned an irritated huff from Mary Margaret who usually didn't understand anything 'romantic' unless it was true love.

Elsa cleared her throat when Ruby looked like she was about to say something else and possibly stick her foot in her mouth, turning her gaze to Emma with a small smile.

"Emma, what ever happened to that guy you were seeing? I haven't heard you talk about him in a while." Elsa supplied as a change of subject, which to her credit did work. Both previously arguing women turned to face her with expectant and curious looks on their face, the disagreement from a moment ago completely forgotten.

She sighed, knowing that she had been lucky to not have been asked sooner by one of them, knowing it was bound to come up. She had been brief with them when it first started, just telling them she was 'seeing' someone, to which Ruby had asked how good he was, Elsa had smiled encouragingly, and Mary Margaret had looked at her concerned. But she hadn't told them anything about him, let alone his name, and in the two weeks since she had found out just who _he_ was she certainly hadn't mentioned him again.

"I -uh- it didn't work out so well." She said, nervous under the heavy gaze of her friends. Especially Mary Margaret whose son went to the same school as Henry did. Granted Leo was two grades below Henry and Mary Margaret had likely never heard of a Mr. Jones, and even if she had she couldn't know that who the guy was - as she had once been told, fear holds no logic.

"What happened?" Ruby, nosey as always asked. She expected Mary Margaret to tell her she didn't have to answer that as she usually did, but instead she was meet with radio silence. She guess she shouldn't have been that surprised.

Killian was the first man in a long time she had been with, let alone told them about. She reminded herself, trying to ease her discomfort at the situation that they were only irritating her because they cared about her. She had been trying to forgot that she had slept with her sons teacher -multiple times -and this conversation surely wasn't helping erase the memories that seemed engrained in her brain.

"His work got in the way." She didn't care if she was being vague now, she just wanted to finish the conversation. Though mentally she smirked at her explanation. Understatement of the year.

"Emma honey, I'm sorry." Mary Margaret said, reaching her hand across the table and squeezing her hand in hers. Emma smiled politely at her, resisting the need to tell her that it's fine, she wasn't upset about it. Still in denial about it, and perhaps a bit disappointed that she couldn't sleep with him anymore, but not upset about him.

"It's okay."

"Please let me set you up with someone!" Ruby supplied, looking like an excited puppy. Emma outwardly groaned at the thought, letting her head fall back against the booth.

"Ruby that last time you set me up with someone he spent the entire time starring at my cleavage and talking about his mom."

"Well he was into you, and has a good relationship with his mother! Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"

"Not when you're almost thirty and live in her basement and talk about giving her creepy massages after work."

Ruby perked up again, about to defend her last pick for Emma when she frowned apparently out of things to say about her last fail that weren't negative.

"Why don't we talk about something else? Mary Margaret how's the day care going?" Else interrupted, sensing Emma's unease. She shot her a grateful look listening happily as Mary Margaret talked about how nice some of the new parent were at the day care she ran.

She sat there, picking at her mostly eaten pancakes wondering if maybe Ruby was right. Maybe she did need to go on a date, meet someone new. Certainly not one of Ruby's picks, maybe Mary Margaret knew one of David's friends that she would like, or Elsa could think of someone.

She knew she should do it, the fastest way to get Killian out of her mind, was to get someone else in it. But she found she didn't want to. Reluctant to think about it too much, she shoved the voice inside of her head down, content to finish the rest of her brunch in relative peace.

* * *

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, life starting to return to normal over time. She hadn't seen Killian again when picking up or dropping off Henry, she had stopped hiding when she drove to the school. She stopped feeling like he was going to show up at any moment and destroy her illusion of acceptance over what had happened.

The following Monday she sat at the kitchen table, sipping from a cup of coffee and tracking a perp on her laptop who was stupid enough to use their credit card yesterday to rent a car. Based on where he was last seen, it looked like he was heading in her direction. Perhaps it was time to try to lure him into one of her traps.

She was just thinking of checking which social media accounts he had so that she could reach out to him, when her phone rang startling her in the silence of the empty apartment.

She reached for it frowning in confusion when she saw the number of Henry's school.

"Hello?" She answered wondering what this was about.

"Emma Swan?" An unfamiliar female voice asked.

"Speaking."

"My name is Ashely and I work at Storybrooke Elementary. Your son Henry is in the principle's office and it's requested that you come and meet with him and the principle."

"What?" She blurted out, confused as to why Henry would be in the principle's office. Wasn't that usually reserved for misbehaving children? Henry was a good kid, he had never had a problem before.

"What happened? Why is he there?" She questioned.

"I think it's best if you just come down Miss Swan." The woman said before hanging up the phone without giving Emma a chance to respond. Frowning at the flashing screen, she set the phone down and huffed, wondering what on earth Henry had managed to do.

Shoving her feet in a pair of boots, and slipping on a tan leather jacket, she raced to the school, driving perhaps a bit faster than she should have, but curiosity took over and she didn't think of anything else other than worrying over what was going on with Henry.

She parked quickly, not hard to find a parking spot when the parking lot was empty during the middle of the school day, and rushed inside of the building barely even looking at the petite blonde woman sitting behind the counter -Ashely presumably.

Happy to see that the principle's office was open saying as she hadn't planned on stopping even if it was closed, Emma marched in, taking the liberty of being rude for the time being.

When she entered the room she didn't even notice anything except for Henry. Her eyes instantly darting to him and focusing solely on him.

Or more accurately his appearance. He had a bruise forming under his right eye, his lip was split slightly down the middle, and he had a tear in his jeans on his knee, as well as dirt and grass stains covering his pants and shirt.

"Henry what happened?!" She exclaimed, worried as she rushed over to the chair he sat in and kneeled on the ground in front of him, sighing when he in response hugged her.

A clearing of a throat snapped her out of her immediate state of worry now that she could see that Henry was in fact fine, if not a bit banged up. She stood up from the ground and meet the eyes of the person sitting behind the principle's desk, who had cleared their throat impatiently a moment ago.

She had hear stories about the Principle of Storybrooke Elementary, everyone had. But she had heard first hand all about the Principle, as Mary Margaret was on the school board and got to deal with them on a regular basis. It seemed they held a particular grudge against Mary Margaret for no particular reason.

Regina Mills was a striking woman. Striking - not beautiful or pretty. For while she was beautiful, she was mostly cold. The dark short cropped hair, grey eyeshadow, and dark berry lip color combined with her stark clean grey pencil skirt and blazer gave her the look of a statue. And the glare on her face certainly wasn't helping the illusion.

"What happened Miss Swan," The woman started to speak, "Was that your son started a down right brawl during recess today." She shook her head as if disgusted by the whole situation. She looked back at Henry, confusion clouding her mind.

Henry had never done anything like that before, he had never gotten in trouble for being mean to a kid let alone starting a fight.

"Principle Mills, I do believe you're exaggerating the situation quite a bit." A third voice piped in that in her haste and confusion hadn't even registered that another person was in the room.

Her brain certainly hadn't thought to warn her that Killian Jones was sitting in a chair less than five feet away from her defending her son. She looked at him after he spoke, still a bit startled. Surprisingly, he wasn't looking at her, instead his attention turned on Principle Mills who was correcting him in his assumption.

It was strange, she thought that he was always looking at her, always watching, but now he wasn't. Until it dawned on her that in her need to forget that Killian was Henry's teacher, she had actually forgotten that Killian was Henry's teacher. it was probably customary and required that the teacher of the student in question be present for such things. This had nothing to do with her, this was simply about Henry.

Ignoring Principle Mills going on about what a ruckus he had caused, she instead turned to Henry who was sitting in his chair slumped far down trying to hide, looking very guilty.

She gave him a small smile, hoping that he understood that she wasn't mad at him.

"What happened Henry? Did you start a fight?" He looked down sheepishly at first when the room grew quite and all three adults turned their attention to the child, awaiting his answer.

"I didn't start it." He said, though it didn't sound defensive. It didn't sound like a child who was trying to convince them on something that wasn't true. Even her super power didn't tell her anything wasn't true about what he said. She was just about to prompt Henry into saying what happened when he started to explain for himself.

"A mean boy named Chucky was making fun of me. Saying that I didn't have any friends and was a loser. He said that I didn't have any friends because I didn't have a dad, and he started calling you bad names because you aren't married." She sighed, hating how guilty and ashamed he looked but also feeling her heart leap to her throat.

Henry had gotten into a fight to protect her, If the Principle hadn't been glaring daggers at the both of them she would have swept him up into a hug and offered to buy him ice cream everyday for the next month. Instead she settled with an "Oh Henry." before squeezing his hand.

"Yes, it's quite against the rules. I suggest a week of suspension." If she had turned her had any quicker she would have snapped her neck.

"And the other boy? The one who was bullying my son and being inappropriate, is he also being suspended?"

"The other child was a victim of violence."

"The other child was a bully who was harassing my son. My son defended himself, if anything Henry is the victim here not the other child." She said, voice rising and anger flaring. How dare she insist that Henry was the problem here?

"Miss Swan I suggest you calm down before you make matters worse. I can see where you son got his rage." She was about to really show Regina Mills where Henry had gotten his 'rage' from when Killian who had been quite the entire time interjected.

"A week of suspension if a bit harsh Principle Mills. Especially since the other child involved isn't suffering the same punishment." Her anger flared at his words, knowing that she had been right.

"How about a week of detention instead?" He supplied causing the Principle to glare at him thought she didn't turn him down immediately.

"Who's to run the extra detention? It's only held on Wednesdays and Thursdays, do you expect me to pay Mr. Donnell extra so that you can teach a lesson to a boy who won't remember it in a week?"

"I'll do it." She really should stop being surprised by Killian Jones at this point, she thought to herself. But she couldn't help in when he kept on doing things like that.

"You'll do detention on Tuesdays and Fridays?"

"Yes" He responded so simply, so flippantly. As if commenting on the blueness of the sky.

Regina put her hands up, surrounding with an incredulous look on her face, not even beginning to fathom his apparent immense stupidity.

"If you want to waste your time go right ahead Mr. Jones. But just know that you won't be payed for your extra efforts."

"I wouldn't expect to." He said smirking, brining her back to reality in a classic Killian move that brought her attention back to Henry who had again grown small in his chair but was now looking at Killian like he had hung the moon and had brought it back for him.

"By all means then Miss Swan, you're free to go." Emma nodded at her, not bothering to thank her for her time as she tugged Henry up by the hand and starting heading towards the door.

"Just know Miss Swan, Mr. Jones, that next time it won't be a week of detention. It'll be two weeks of suspension. And there always is a next time" She again suppressed the urge to strangle the principle and instead walked out of the room, and continued walking until she was standing in the secluded hallway between the main office and principles office.

"I'm sorry mom I-" She cut him off with a bone crushing hug, not waiting or wanting to hear an apology from him. Sure it was stupid of him to start a fight, but more than anything she felt proud of him.

"You have nothing to apologize for." She said smiling at him and she pulled back.

"But maybe next time you know, avoid violence when you're on the play ground."

He nodded smiling at her about to say something else before Killian walked into the hallway and stopped a few feet away from the pair of them.

"Thank you Mr. Jones." Henry said shuffling his feet a bit awkwardly. "For sticking up for me."

"Not a problem Henry. It's bad form to let you take a punishment you don't deserve." Henry thanked him again.

"Henry, you should probably go clean up before heading back to class don't you think?" She asked him, holing back a laugh as Henry looked down at his clothes, eyes widening in response as if just noticing that he looked a bit of a mess.

"Oh yeah." He said before waving and rushing off in the direction of the nearest bathroom.

A silence engulfed the hallway between them, but for the first time that Emma had been alone with him since finding out, it didn't feel awkward. Tense perhaps, certainly not something she would wish to stay in for too long, but the awkwardness was gone.

"Thank you." She said after a minute, looking up at him to find him already looking at her.

"Did you really think I'd let your son suffer Regina's wrath Swan?"

"I don't know," She shrugged noticing the just barely noticeable sad smile on his face, "But thank you all the same."

"You're welcome Emma." The sincerity in his voice shocked her a bit, the way his eyes seemed to clear up a bit when her gaze meet his.

Another silence defended over the two of them that seemed plenty loud enough by his eyes burning into hers. It wasn't until a long minute had passed that she realized she had unconsciously drifted closer to him, finding herself craving his touch after all this time of missing it.

She shook her self, trying to break the spell that seemed to be cast whenever she was around him and took a step back, keeping a careful eye on him while she did so.

"Well I, uh should let you get back." She said and he nodded bidding her a farewell before he stopped walking just after he had started walking away from her.

He turned to face her cautiously, swiveling slowly on the balls of his feet before coming to stop aligned with her, regardless of the space between them.

"I'd like it if we could be friends Swan." There he went again surprising her when he had no right to.

"This awkwardness between us I fear won't come of any good. The school year isn't even half over yet, and we're bound to see more of each other. Especially if Henry decides to embrace his new bad boy persona." She smiled softly at his last joking comment, but still thought for a moment.

He was right she supposed. There was no reason for them to not try to put the past behind them. Besides it wasn't as though he meant for them to stay up late gossiping and braiding each other hair. It was more of an invitation to be cordial for the sake of Henry and professionalism. The waving of a white flag.

"I'd like that too." She responded, relishing in the smile that graced his lips for a minute.

"Friends it is then." He wagged his eyes brows at her before disappearing behind the hallway back to his classroom.

She took that as her cue to leave as well, walking unnecessarily stiffly through the office and front door, all the way to her car.

It wasn't until she was sitting in the drivers seat, keys in hand that she realized what had just happened. She had just agreed to be Killian Jones' friend. She groaned at the thought, hitting her head against the steering wheel wondering why bad things happened to relatively okay people.

In that moment she couldn't think of anything that sounded like a worse idea than being Killian Jones' friend. Just as she was unable to stop the blush that still hand't left her cheeks from having a simple conversation with him, she was unable to deny him his request of friendship.

And she was fairly certain it was going to kill her.

* * *

Hope you guys enjoyed getting to see a few other characters in this chapter! I finally have a solid game plan and outline for the rest of this story, and hopefully you guys are liking where it's headed so far! Let me know what you think of this chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

The once perfect and pristine white table cloth had exactly four imperfections. The stitching on the left corner was coming undone slightly from one too many washings, a small red wine stain hidden strategically under the salt shaker, a barely visible tear along the bottom edge, and the fact that it was the most interesting part of Killian's evening.

The Italian restaurant was busy, even for a Friday night. People were taking up all corners of the two story building, keeping the waiters busy, and happy with their generous tips. The over priced food certainly didn't hurt.

The woman sitting next to him was pretty enough, a Rachel? He thought her name was. Straight brown hair that fell just past her shoulders, round hazel eyes, and her lips painted a dark red stain. Her dress was green and short enough that it rode up noticeably when she sat, revealing an appealing amount of skin.

She was nice enough he supposed, smiling and laughing at nearly everything he said, granted he hadn't said much that evening.

Sitting there bored for so long, he had come to the conclusion that it was all Liam's fault really. His brother meant well, he knew that. But when he continuously set him up on double dates with him and whoever his current girlfriend was, it was harder than he would have liked to remember that he truly did have good intentions.

Liam laughed at something Jackie, his current love interest said, saying something in response that in turn made her laugh. Killian sat across from Liam while Rachel sat next to him.

"So you're a teacher Killian? What grade do you teach?" She said leaning across the table slightly at him, giving him a clear view of her cleavage peaking out over the low cut of her top. He sighed, feeling guilty for not being remotely interested.

"Fifth grade." He supplied courtly, but politely.

"That's such a great age! My boss' daughter just turned four and he's getting so nervous about sending her off pre-school and I keep on telling him that…" He tuned out her slightly nasally voice, resuming his previous inspection of the table cloth as Rachel went on about her boss and job as a receptionist.

It wasn't her fault, in fact he thought there was very well likely something wrong with him that he wasn't even slightly entered in a beautiful, nice, woman who was clearly interested in him.

Or really he would have been worried if he didn't know why he wasn't interested.

Every time he looked at Rachel he kept on wishing her straight brown hair was curling and blonde. Her olive skin paler, her hazel eyes a full vibrant green that he found himself drawn to beside his immense trepidation.

Emma Swan wouldn't leave his mind. Try as he might to avoid thinking about her, it was made rather hard that he kept on running into her. Every time he thought he might have finally freed himself from her spell, she turned up again with her guarded walls, and fiery passion and reminded him of why he was having such a hard time forgetting her in the first place.

"If you'll excuse me I'm going to visit the ladies room." Jackie said standing and giving Rachel a meaningful look before she too stood and followed her friend off to the bathroom. Killian rolled his eyes, only imagining what the two women were saying about him.

"What do you think?" Liam asked, clapping his hands together excitedly catching Killian's attention and brining his gaze away from the now thoroughly inspected table cloth.

"Of the pasta? Quite good actually, though I'm not too surprised, this being an Italian establishment and all." His brother smirked at him, but raised his eyebrows prompting him to answer. He sighed, slumping down in his chair a bit, thinking of what a waste of time this was. He should be at home working on a lesson plan for the coming week, not out pleasing his brother and torturing himself in the process.

"She's fine, nice and lovely and wonderful."

"So you don't like her?" He shrugged in response. "What's wrong with you Killian? Are you no longer interested in women? Meet some bloke while I was visiting home did you?" He glared but said nothing in response.

"After Milah," He shot his eyes up to Liam's in warning, "I didn't know what to do. I thought you needed space and time, so I gave it to you. But it's been years little brother. You've had your space, you've had your time Killian. Now it's time to move on."

"I bloody well know that Liam. I'm sorry if the women you've been marching in front of me like a damn parade isn't enough to spark my fancy." He responded more sharply than he had intended.

"Look, just give Rachel a chance alright? She's a nice lass who just got out of a bad situation. I'm not saying to date her, or to even see her again after tonight, but at least pretend that you're not completely ignoring her like a total arse." Liam rolled his eyes, letting him know that he was joking.

"Will do."

"Thank you little brother."

"Younger brother." He mumbled under his breathe on impulse, to which Liam just laughed. The two feel into a comfortable silence, as Killian let his eyes wander the restaurant waiting for the ladies to return from the restroom. It was a nice restaurant, some place that he had never been and that Jackie had likely picked out. It was dimly lit, the walls a burgundy red, big chandeliers hanging in different spots of the ceiling, a romantic place really.

He was letting his mind wander, the low music creating a serene since of comfort over him as he started to think that the girls had been gone for a really long time, when he saw it.

A flash of color, in the moody deep hues of the restaurant and the majority of the patrons there that were all wearing varying levels of black and blue, the flash of bright vibrant red caught his attention the moment he saw it.

While it was the color that caught his attention, it was the pale blonde hair that locked his gaze to that place. She was turned away from him, her back twisted talking to the waiter that stood in front of her taking her order. He held his breath as he watched, already knowing who that mane of sun shine hair belonged to even before she turned back the right way so that her profile was facing him from across the room.

Emma Swan was wearing a bright red dress. Fitted tight, low cut, and short, that showed off all of her best assets -not that he thought she had any bad ones. Her hair hung in loose curls, cascading down her back elegantly. She wore tall black heels that even sitting down made her legs look incredibly long. He hungrily drank in her image, thinking that she looked much like she did the night they met at the bar. But then she had been wearing a black dress, her curls had been pulled up, and she had actually spoken to him for five minutes without running in the other direction.

His brain wandered, as he thought about what they did after the bar, but the girls returning from the bathroom quickly shut down that train of thought. He barely took any notice of them, or Liam for that matter, feeling like a jerk, but not being strong enough to ignore Emma sitting there.

Having been so caught up in her, it hadn't even occurred to him that she wasn't by herself. It certainly hadn't occurred to him that she was sitting at a table across from a well dressed attractive man, smiling and flirting with him.

He nearly choked on his drink at the realization and when he started coughing, Liam gave him a look that told him he clearly wasn't pleased. His date had given up on him entirely after he had unintentionally ignored her last try to start a conversation and had taken to instead talking to her friend.

His blood boiled, overcome but a sudden immense anger that she was here at a romantic restaurant on a date. Logically in the back of his mind, he knew that he was being ridiculous. He and Emma hadn't ever been exclusive, or even together, and they certainly weren't now. And saying as he was currently at the exact same place, doing the exact same thing, he knew he was being a hypocrite.

But that didn't seem to matter much at the moment. Especially when she was reaching her hand across the table placed it onto of his.

The man eating her up entirely, his eyes early darting between her breasts on full display, and her beautiful made up face. Killian didn't blame him, the women was like a siren. But a little self control would be nice.

He became even more rigid in his stance when she started to scoot her chair closer to his, angering her body towards his.

A sharp pain in his shin brought him back from his only slightly creepy starring, and the glare Liam shot him indicated that he had kicked him. He spared him a confused look before clearing his throat and turning back to his 'date'.

"Rachel, Liam tells me you're quite the artist. What kind of work do you do?" He asked, smiling in a charming manner. He could see her slightly resistant to try again, but she eventually started talking again and the two of them continued on a conversation.

But all the while his gaze kept on finding its way back to Emma. It was in quick bursts, just little flashes of her, her dress, her body, completely ignoring the presumably moronic man she was with.

It wasn't until Rachel had finished telling him about her latest trip to Hawaii that he took more than just a quick glance in her direction.

Things had changed drastically since the last time he had looked over at the pair. Emma was still leaning in close, practically smirking, while the man was leaning away from her, an anger vastly growing on his face.

Confused, he looked back and forth between the two of them trying desperately to figure out what sort of thing could have changed their interaction so quickly.

Suddenly, the man leapt up from his chair, looking frantic. Emma quickly followed suit, standing to match him, only a second passed before he literally threw the table into her, sending it crashing into Emma.

She didn't even looked fazed as the table crashed into her, sending a glass of red wine down her side and staining her skirt. She just looked irritatedly in the direction of where the man was currently running through the restaurant, pushing waiters aside in his haste to find the exit.

She just shook her head and took off in a calm walk towards him.

So shocked by the entire situation, Killian didn't even realize he had stood up until Liam snapped his fingers in his face.

"Killian? What the bloody hell are you doing?" He asked, though the girls were both starring in the direction of the turned over table, as were many of the other people around them.

He didn't think after that, a worry settling into his bones as he too took off in the direction to follow Emma. He heard Liam calling his name, but his brother could wait. This couldn't.

He arrived at the entrance of the restaurant finding no sign of Emma or the man she had been with. He looked around frantically at first, assuming the worst of a very angry man at a women. Until he again saw a flash of red across the street.

Emma stood outside of a flashy sports car, talking through the window to her date. The man was spewing words at her that he couldn't hear, but by her stance he could tell certainly weren't pleasant.

He crossed the street just in time to see her slam the mans head into the steering wheel, effectively rendering him unconscious. He hovered behind her a few feet away for a moment, watching as she relaxed slightly and looked down at her dress mumbling "Really?" under her breath.

She then procured a pair of hand cuffs out of thin air which certainly didn't make him think about where she had been hiding those, and pulled open the car door, trying to pull the man from the vehicle.

"Need a hand love?" He said finally, coming to stand by the car, leaning against its side.

She jumped, having startled her as she turned around tense, until she saw it was him and instead just looked deeply confused.

"Killian, what the hell, You scared the shit out of me." She said stopping her efforts and instead crossing her arms across her chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Well darling, saying as you're the one who's trying to drag an unconscious man from his car and handcuff him, I feel It should be I asking you that." She glared at him, watching as a car whizzed by them.

"He skipped bail, It's my job to bring him back." His jaw went slightly slack.

"You're a bail bondsman?" He asked, surprise not even beginning to cover his feelings.

"Bail bonds person." She corrected him. He chuckled slightly, rubbing his hand across his jaw, taking her in. Damn, she really didn't look good.

"You'll forgive me love if that's the sexiest thing I've ever heard." She rolled her eyes at him, though he didn't miss the small smile on her lips.

"Don't get too excited." She warned.

"Darling, you're holding handcuffs. I'm already excited." He raised an eyebrow at her, and this time she did laugh.

"Yeah well, they're not for you." She gestured to the man still in the car.

"And what a damn shame that is." She sighed this time, looking at the bail jumper, irritation in her eyes as she chewed on her bottom lip.

"Well I've got to Sleeping Beauty here out and back to the station, so if you'll excuse me." She said gesturing for him to move off of the car, which he did but instead came to stand directly next to her and motioned for her to move.

"Allow me love." He said, ignoring his protests as he pulled the man from the car -and not to gently -and sat him on the ground. She had her hands on her hips, now projecting her irritation onto him. Instead of saying anything she simply took the handcuffs and slapped them on his wrists.

She looked over at the street corner, and then back over at him a few times before sighing.

"I'm need to pull my car around, will you wait here with him in case he wakes up?"

"It would be my honor." She glared at him as she started walking away. He watched her until she disappeared around the corner and he instead looked at the bloke who thought he was getting laid tonight.

He really didn't think he would be that mad if he did wake up. Punching him sounded like an attractive option right now.

The ringing of his phone interrupted his train of thought, he pulled it out of his pocket and seeing it was Lima answered.

"What the bloody buggering hell is wrong with you? Why did you stalk out of here looking like you were about to kill someone?" He sighed, trying to think of a reasonable answer. He hadn't told his brother about Emma, let alone the rather complicated recent events.

"It's- I thought I saw someone I knew?" He responded lamely.

"You thought you saw someone you knew? Why couldn't you stay and talk to people you actually bloody know? Killian I tried hard tonight, I really thought you and Rachel would hit it off and then you go and pull this shit -"

Emma's bug whipped around the corner approaching him quickly.

"Look I'm sorry Liam alright? I'll talk to you later." He said, hanging up not waiting for a response as Emma pulled up and parked in the spot behind the bail jumpers car.

She got out of the car, and opened the back, brining the front seat forward, bending down as she did so. He tried not to look at her ass, really, but by the way she glared at him again when she stood back up told him he had failed.

She grabbed the mans arms, pulling them over his head and nodded towards his feet.

"Do you mind?" She asked.

"Not at all." He said picking up the mans feet, as he and Emma carried the man towards her car and shoved him into the back seat of her car, arranging him so that no limbs would be in the door when it closed. He was still surprised he hadn't had woken up by now, she must have hit him hard. He smiled at the thought.

"Well Swan, it seems we make quite the team." She smiled at him rolling he eyes and she readjusted her chair and closed the back door.

"I do have to say I'm bloody shocked this is what you do. And quite a way to find out. When I saw the fool throw the table at you and run away, I currently didn't think this was the explanation." She smiled genuinely at that.

"Well it's only fair, now you know how it feels." He laughed, thinking that she was probably right, although the first time he had ben just as shocked as her.

"You were at the restaurant?" She asked as if just now processing what he had said, eyes brows pulling together.

"Aye, with my brother Liam."

"You were at a fancy romantic restaurant for dinner with your brother?"

"There may have been dates with us." He said slowly, testing out the waters, curious as to her response.

"Oh." Was all she said, face giving away nothing.

"Oh?" He questioned, stepping closer noticing the way that her eyes instantly flared up in warning, though she didn't step away.

"Oh." She cemented raising an eyebrow, daring him to comment further on it.

"Don't worry Swan, I couldn't keep my eyes off of you." If he had been further away from her he would have thought he imagined the blush on her cheeks.

She did step back from him then, playing idly with the keys in her hand.

"Well, thanks for, you know." She said gesturing to the still sleeping man in her car.

"It's never a problem Swan," He said, swaying closer to her as he spoke, "Although perhaps gratitude is in order now." Hey eyes darted down to his lips as she drifted even closer to him, the two of them just barely inches apart, lips almost touching.

He watched her with hooded eyes, waiting for her to make the final move. All he had to do was tilt his head and they would be kissing, but he waited. A look of realization dawned on her as she shook her head pulling back, though not stepping away. He sighed, confused at the stubborn woman.

"Killian, I can't. We can't." She gestured between the two of them, so close that her hand touched his chest. He couldn't ignore the spark that ran through him just at her simple touch.

"Emma," He said, hating how desperate he suddenly sounded. Though when her eyes meet his, he found that he had nothing to say.

"I have to go." She said opening the car door about to step in before she stopped and faced him again.

"Goodnight Killian."

"Goodnight Emma." He responded watching as she got in the car and quickly sped off in the other direction, away from him.

He wondered why he felt so rejected when she hadn't kissed him, and when she had driven off without him. Wondered why she was effecting him so much when they had only slept together a few times. Sure it had been great, but-

 _Oh bloody hell_ , He thought to himself, rubbing a tired hand down his face. _I like her._

He didn't have more time to dwell on his realization as Liam suddenly came bursting out of the restaurant and zeroed in on him instantly, stalking his way over, nearly being run over in the process of crossing the street.

"Killian, can you tell me what the fuc-" He stopped mid sentence looking at him

He stood still starring in the direction that Emma had drove off in, still not entirely out of his own head and reeling from his admittance.

"Brother, are you alright?" Liam said, and he knew it must look bad. He only called him brother in place of little brother when he was worried. He forced himself to snap out of it, turning to face Liam with a smile.

"Fine." He said, not giving him a chance to respond before he headed towards the parking lot where they had parked their car. He wondered briefly what had happened to the girls until he saw them walk out of the building a moment later and walk in the other direction.

"Killian," He called again, rushing to keep up with his giant forced steps. When he didn't stop, Liam reached out and yanked on his arm forcing him to stop.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing, Liam let it go." He said wrenching his arm form his brothers grasp suddenly angry. A fire of rage crawling its way up his spine as he found the car and started it waiting for Liam to climb into the passenger side.

Angry at Liam who had pushed him to date, which had caused him to only want to hook up with women, which had caused him to go to bars, which had caused to meet Emma.

Angry at Emma for being logical and continuously turning him down, while simultaneously turning him on.

Angry at himself for being the bloody teacher of her damn son.

But mostly angry at himself for making the situation even more complicated than it already was.

The entire drive to drop off Liam, and then back to his house only one thought ran through his mind. He liked Emma Swan. And no matter what he did she wouldn't leave his thoughts. But he didn't want her to, not really.

Which is most likely why it didn't work.

* * *

This chapter took a bit longer than I would have liked, but I got unexpectedly really busy the last few days, sorry!

I kept on debating if I wanted to have Killian's POV in this story or not, but then I thought of this chapter idea and it didn't really work to have it be told by Emma. So you'll get the story from both of them now, hopefully a good thing!

And also I love the Jones brother too much to not have Liam be in this. (Captain Charming is coming soon(ish) prepare yourselves)

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I thought it was only fair that Killian found out what Emma did, the same way she found out about him! Let me know what you think and if you liked Killian's POV!


	5. Chapter 5

Going over the events of two nights ago again, she had managed to put in order the list of bad things that had happened. First came the fact that the restaurant that her 'date' had agreed to meet her at was a near hour drive from her apartment, causing her to pay the baby sitter double for being later than she expected. Next was the wine stain on her dress that she was already quite familiar with, and knew wouldn't be coming out _ever_. Emma really did like that dress.

And lastly was a certain unexpected interference by one Killian Jones.

Or maybe that was at the top of her list of good things that happened that night. Just after catching the guy of course. She couldn't make up her mind on how she quite felt about their encounter a few night ago, it had certainly been different than the last few times she had seen him.

It was as though seeing him out of the school setting had freed them both from the lingering awkwardness. It also of course freed them both from the constant reminder that it was _wrong_ as she had nearly kissed him, multiple times. Self control was proving to be hard around him.

But regardless of that certain matter, it had been almost, fun. He had been in a good mood, and she couldn't deny it was nice to pay him back a bit. It was only fair really, that she was so blindsided by his job that he be just as surprised by hers. She tried to ignore the logical portion of her brain that told her he had been acting jealous of the idea of her on a date, but it apparently didn't feel like keeping quite at the moment.

She sighed, deciding that contemplating her complex relationship with Henry's teacher wasn't going to do her any good for the day. She stood up from the kitchen table and walked her coffee mug to the sink where she made busy for a moment cleaning it until she was left with nothing to do.

Henry was gone at school for the day, she had yet to find a new perp to track down, and the fridge was fully stocked. She was graciously saved having to think of something to do by the sound of her phone ringing. She picked it up from where it sat on the counter, seeing it was Mary Margaret, and answered.

"Hey" She said walking over and plopping down onto the sofa.

"How'd the set up go the other night? Did you get him?" Her friends always overly eager voice rang through the phone. She smiled to herself even if she found her enthusiasm sometimes a bit much, she still appreciated it. Or at least made an effort to.

"Of course." She replied, purposefully leaving out the fact that she had a little bit of help in the process.

"Emma Swan always gets her man." Mary Margaret said, causing her to chuckle.

"So what's up? Why'd you call?"

"A friend can't just call another friend to see how their fake date with a hardened criminal went?"

"Nope. Especially not you. You only call when you want something." She heard an annoyed sounding sigh from the other line, but other than that silence.

"You may be right." She rolled her eyes.

"Come on then, out with it."

"Keep in mind you owe me from the other week when I watched Henry so that you could go on a last minute stake out. And I'm usually not one to keep track so closely of the favors people owe me, I just like doing things to be nice and friendly, and because it's the right thing to do and-"

"Mary Margaret," She said interrupting the now babbling women. "What is it?"

"I need you to be a chaperone for the school field trip to the zoo on Thursday." She groaned, letting her head fall back against the couch cushion. She could now understand why Mary Margaret hadn't wanted to ask.

It wasn't that Emma didn't want to be involved with Henry's schooling experience, it was more that she loathed things like that, and that Henry never voiced any real interest in having her tag along. She had a few times when he first started in kindergarten, but she got the feeling that Henry hadn't had that much fun, and she certainly _didn't._

Not to mention that now it wouldn't just be chaperoning a group of fifth graders. It would be chaperoning a group of fifth graders with their extremely handsome British teacher that seemed hell bent on trying to kill her. Or seduce her.

She was family certain at this point they were the same things. Being friends with him was significantly more difficult than she had hoped, and she had only encounter him once since their agreement had taken place.

"Mary Margaret" She started.

"I know, I know." She interrupted her before she could interject further. "But being on the school board now I have to be able to help out. We just had someone drop out at the last minute and you're the only one I know on such a short basis that qualifies for the job." She snorted.

"What are the qualifications? As long as your not a murderer or pervert you're good to go?" She heard a loaded silence that told her she wasn't impressed.

"It's actually that they're a parent of a student that attends Storybrooke Elementary, and while I'm not sure it actually says anywhere that you're not a murdered, I'm sure it's preferred." She smiled a little before sighing, knowing that she couldn't refuse. Even if she didn't owe Mary Margaret a favor, she still would have a hard time saying no to her friend.

"Fine, I'll do it." She heard a sort of excited laugh from the other end of the phone that already had her regretting her decision.

"Thanks Emma you're the best! I'll text you the details later but really all you have to do it be at the school by 7!"

"Sounds great." She said.

"See you then!" She wished Mary Margaret a good day before hanging up the phone and sinking even further down into the couch.

 _It's not a big deal._ She told herself over and over, they were friends now. They had handed the other night fine, and like adults.

Maybe like adults who were flirty with each other, and with thinly veiled sexual innuendoes, and unresolved sexual tension, and almost kisses _but_ , she could control herself. She just hoped the same could be said of him.

* * *

Tuesday and Wednesday passed with a vengeance, propelling her into Thursday by the sound of her alarm clock before she was strictly ready for it. The morning passed quickly as she started her daily battle of getting Henry out of bed, fed, and ready for school before time was up and in the process got herself ready to. Mary Margaret hadn't said anything about what to wear so she kept it simple. Choosing a pair of jeans, a white sweater, and a tan leather jacket.

Henry was miraculously ready to go and waiting for her when she got out of her room. The drive to school was filled with excited chatter as Henry talked about which animals he was most excited to see - Cobras for the record. She didn't tell him that she wasn't so certain the zoo would actually have cobras, some things aren't worth mentioning. She was however surprised to find that Henry seemed happy she was coming. She hadn't expected him to be upset, but neutral really. She shrugged it off though, stranger things had happened.

 _Yeah like sleeping with your sons teacher_ she thought to herself, but found herself smiling. Before she might have cringed at the thought, but now it seemed almost funny. But then as she pulled into the school parking lot and parked the car, the concept grew less and less funny as she was about to be faced with spending the entire day with said teacher.

Mary Margaret had told her that she would be paired with another parent from Henry's class, that apparently even chaperones used the buddy system. And if she knew Killian, she had a feeling she wouldn't exactly be paired with a parent for the day.

They walked into the school, feeling a buzz of excitement take over the hallways as they got closer and closer to Henry's class. The entire school wasn't going, just grades 3-5, but it was still enough to send the entire school into a mad dash to get things done. Teachers, students, and apparent parents alike kept on anxiously darting around making sure everyone had what they needed, and that they were prepared.

Finally entering Killian's classroom Henry almost immediately left her side to go and talk to his friends, leaving her to fend for herself. She hovered by the door not really sure where she was supposed to go or do, but she saw a few other parents standing around the room, making her feel more comfortable in her place.

She tried not to look for him, _really_ , she might not have tried that hard, but she did put an actual effort into not scanning the room until she found him. But, well, she really didn't try that hard.

He was easy to spot, standing leaning against his desk, talking animatedly to one of the children fathers, chuckling at something the man said.

His eyes suddenly darted up, as if feeling her gaze on him and meet her eyes, his face instantly brightening. She smiled at him, knowing that if the were going to get through the day polite was the best way to go. And if that meant ignoring the conclusion to their last meeting, than that was fine with her. She was actually fairly anxious to pretend that it never happened. He shook hands with the man he was talking to before heading in her direction.

"Swan!" He said excitedly, stopping in front of her. "I was a little surprised to see your name on the field trip list." She rolled her eyes but smiled.

"It wasn't really by choice. I owed a friend a favor."

"Ah I see, being blackmailed into school activities?"

"Something like that." She responded smiling at him again. _See?_ She said to herself, _this is easy_.

Her internal monologue was interrupted as Mary Margaret suddenly came bursting into the room, putting on quite a sight searching frantically for Killian. Emma smothered a smile from forming at the expense her friends appearance. She had paired a classic one of her dresses with a school spirited bright yellow Storybrooke Elementary T-shirt. An interesting look indeed.

Mary Margaret sighed finding him and smiled at Emma as she came over to the two of them.

"Mr. Jones, Emma!" She exclaimed coming closer to them. "Glad to see you two have meet." She could feel, physically _feel_ Killian holding back a joke but he apparently thought better of it as he remained silent.

"Mrs. Nolan." He said greeting her politely. "I didn't know you two knew each other Ms. Swan?" He questioned looked back and forth between the two of them a bit confused.

"The previously mentioned blackmailer." Emma said, causing Killian to smile, and Mary Margaret to look at her like she had gone a bit crazy.

"Well then I guess I owe Mrs. Nolan a thank you for granting me such lovely company today." She rolled her eyes, not missing the strange look that Mary Margaret gave her.

"Any excuse to have Emma socialize." She gave her a sarcastic smile, but still felt there was something Mary Margaret wasn't saying.

"I just stopped by to say that you're bus is ready! You're on bus 11, and you can head out whenever you're ready." She smiled.

"Wonderful, thank you. I'll wrangle everyone together and have us out in a few minutes."

"Great! See you guys there!" She said turning to go, waving as she went but not before giving Emma another look. She frowned wondering what that was about.

"How do you know Mrs. Nolan?" Killian asked, cocking his head at her. Truthfully she hadn't known that the two of them knew each other, suddenly very grateful she hadn't told Mary Margaret she was 'seeing' anyone. Mary Margaret somehow had a knack for figuring things out, she probably would have pieced the facts together had she known.

"We've known each other for years, ever since I moved to Storybrooke really." He could tell there was more to the story, but sensing it was a heavy topic thankfully just let it go.

He turned to the classroom, telling everyone that they should start heading to the bus and went to put on his jacket and put his phone in his pocket.

"Mom!" Henry said, racing up to her, his backpack hanging off his shoulder. She smiled at him fixing the strap before responding.

"You excited kid? The animals, a day off school, the zoo?"

"Yeah! And you being here!" She smiled, glad to see he was happy to have her.

"Can I sit with Brian on the bus?" Her smiled faltered a bit, having assumed that Henry would sit with her on the thirty minute ride over, but she recovered quickly.

"Sure kid."

"Thanks mom!" He said racing off, before giving her a chance to respond.

"If you wanted to sit with me Swan all you had to do was ask. No need to use the lad as an excuse." She startled a bit at him creeping up on him but in response only raised an eyebrow, knowing that no matter what she said he would sit next to her on the bus. She wouldn't have put it past him to have bribed Henry to sit with someone else so that he could sit next to her.

"Let's get going then shall we?" He said, clapping his hands together to get the rooms attention and then proceeded to lead the group out of the classroom and towards the busses waiting for them outside.

It wasn't until he turned around to look at her from the front of the group and smiled at her, a genuine happy smile, that she realized just how much trouble she was in.

* * *

Not to her surprise, he did sit with her on the bus. But surprisingly enough it passed without incident. No overly sexual comments were made, no mentions of their past, it could almost be considered nice.

If she hadn't kept on seeing the way he was looking at her.

A soft smile kept on spreading across his handsome face, causing a crinkle to form around his eyes, the blue in them slightly brighter when he looked at her, a far away gaze in them.

She knew that look, had seen it only a few times in her life directed at her, but she knew it all too well. The fact that he was Henry's teacher be damned, she didn't want that look anywhere near her. He may seem nice, and wonderful, but the other shoe -the one that wasn't her son's teacher -was bound to drop at some point. And it would be much bigger than an unlikely coincidence. Of this she was certain. Which is how she suddenly found herself wanting to stay as far away from Killian Jones as possible.

It wasn't until all the kids from all the busses and grades were off the bus and into the zoo -a task that took an infuriating amount of time -that they were divided into smaller groups within each class and grade level.

The kids in Henry's class were divided into groups alphabetically, while the chaperones were assigned at random. Or not so random in her case.

"It seems you're stuck with me for the rest of the day Swan." He said coming up to her after the last two parents had been grouped together with each other, leaving only her and him.

She couldn't think of anything to say that didn't sound rude, so instead she simply smiled, moving away from him to make sure their group of ten children -which included Henry -was all ready to go and asked where they all wanted to go first.

After deciding that everyone wanted to see the giraffes as their first stop, they took off, Emma and Killian following behind their group making sure they were still heading in the right direction.

She could see him looking at her from the corner of her eye, taking quick glances every now and then. Trying to be inconspicuous, but failing.

"Have," He started, clearing his throat and lowering it a bit as to not be overheard by overly eager children. "Have I done something to upset you Emma?" He asked looking at her fully this time, deciding to stop taking small looks instead.

"Nope." She responded, only realizing how fake that sounded with the over enunciated 'p'. She flinched not knowing what to say. She couldn't exactly tell him she was upset because she thought that he liked her. She rolled her eyes at herself internally thinking it sounded ridiculous, but she stood firm in her beliefs. She didn't need, and certainly didn't want anyone else in her life.

"Emma if this is about the other night…"

"It's not. Really Killian, it's fine." She sighed, seeing his confused and slightly hurt face. "Let's just get through today, okay?" He nodded.

"You know you certainly don't seem like you enjoy the zoo much." She shrugged, avoiding his gaze as they grew closer to the giraffes fields.

"I never really went much as a kid." As a foster child, no one ever wanted to take her to the zoo, or anywhere for that matter. A fun day at the zoo -school day or otherwise -was something she had never gotten the chance to do.

"Did you parents have something against zoos? Everyone goes to the zoo."

"Not when you don't have any parents to take you." She said, shaking her head even as she said it, not meaning to be so open with him. She didn't know why it always happened like this, he seemed to just bring out the more honest side of her.

Something she found growling more infuriating every time she was around him.

"Emma I'm sorry, I didn't mean,"

"No problem." She said walking away from him as they reached the giraffes and joining Henry and some of his friends to watch the animals run around. She chatted with Henry for a few minutes who was more than excited to see the animals, asking if they could get one for a pet. She chuckled shaking her head.

"I don't think it would fit in the apartment kid."

"I guess you're right." He responded frowning, before going back to starring at them with a smile on his face. She could suffer through this day, she thought to herself, for Henry. To see that look on his face, she could deal with Killian trying to break through with her.

She didn't even notice him coming to stand next to her until he was leaning up against the fence railing too close to her for her liking. She watched as Henry walked away, following his friends who had moved further down to get a better look at one of the animals.

"Well Swan if you've seldom been to the zoo, then I say we take advantage of this opportunity." She raised an eyebrow in question.

"How do you feel about making today the best day anyone has ever had at the zoo ever?" He smiled such a boyish smile that she couldn't help but return it, feeling the bad mood slowly start to melt off of her. Even if her reservations remained, today she could be his friends. Tomorrow was another story.

"That's a pretty big claim to make."

"Oh but Swan, you and I both know that I exceed expectations." He winked at her causing a faint blush to cross her cheeks, that she blamed on the chilly wind.

And that's how it all started.

First it was him doing impressions of all of the different animals they saw, not stopping until she was laughing every single time. Then it was insisting that they see the tigers next because they were her favorite, even if the kid weren't so opposed to the idea in the first place. Then during their lunch break he snuck off while all of the kids ate their lunch box lunches and bought her cotton candy. To which she rolled her eyes but begrudgingly ate, swatting his hand away irritatedly when he stole pieces of it.

When they finally made their way to the snake exhibit, Henry was beyond himself, pulling on her hand and dragging her all over the place abandoning the group all together until he found the Cobra's cage.

Watching him standing there with his face basically pressed on the glass starring at the giant snake with such admiration in his eyes she wondered when he had developed such a thing for snakes.

"Did you know that Cobras can spray their venom over six feet at a predator?" Killian said, coming up behind them with the rest of the group that quickly spread out in the room filled with various reptiles and snakes.

"Really?" Henry said turning to face him with wide amazed eyes.

"Indeed lad, vicious creatures." To which Henry responded with a smile.

"Cool." He said turning back to continue watching his apparent new friend.

"When did you become such a snake expert?" He brought his hand to his chest at her words, faking hurt.

"Swan, you wound me. I'm an intellect, an educator." She let out a very ungraceful snort, not missing the way his lips twitched up when she did so.

"To fifth graders." He smiled shyly, dropping his gaze to the floor as he scratched behind his ear.

"I may have a habit of watching the animal planet when I can't sleep." She chuckled at that, thinking that it fit him.

"I tend to stick to the infomercials." She said causing his eyes to be drawn to her again.

"There's just something about someone trying so desperately to sell you something that they're willing to make gigantic idiot of themselves at 3 in the morning that gets to me."

He laughed at that, smiling too nicely at her again.

"I'll have to try it sometime." She nodded.

"You'll thank me for it."

"I have no doubt."

* * *

The last hour of the trip passed much in the same manor, passing so quickly that Emma didn't even realize it was over until she was back on the bus with Killian, sitting by themselves in the front row of seats.

He was being oddly quite, after checking that everyone was on board and telling the driver they were good to go when the rest of the school was, he had sat down beside her in the aisle seat fixing her with a smile before getting presumably lost in his thoughts.

"For the record," She said, watching as he looked up at her, the last parts of a day dream fading from his eyes. "I had a really great time today, so thanks." She smiled shyly.

"It was my pleasure Swan. Though I did notice you didn't say it was the best zoo day anyone has ever had ever. Did I disappoint?" She chuckled.

"Like I said, pretty big shoes to fill." A wicked look crossed his face and she knew she had made a mistake.

"If there's ever anything you want me to fill love -"

"Don't" She said, hitting his arm, "Finish that sentence." He laughed rubbing his arm to which she rolled her eyes.

Maybe being friends with Killian Jones really wasn't so bad, she thought to herself.

As long as they stayed _only_ friends.

* * *

If she was being honest she had been expecting the knock on the door that night. It was only a matter of time really.

Emma opened the door to a very serious looking Mary Margaret standing there. Having gotten rid of her yellow school shirt and instead just wore her pastel blue peter pan collar dress, hands on her hips, lips a bright shade of pink, still managing to look threatening.

"Mary Margaret," She said, stepping to the side and motioning with her hand for her to enter. "Come on in. Henry just went to bed so let's talk in the living room?" She said nothing, instead sweeping into the apartment like she owned the place and walking into the living room, settling herself into one of the two armchair.

She watched her as she walked into the room and sat down in the middle of the sofa meeting Mary Margaret's gaze, but not saying anything. They both stayed like that for a minute, caught in the middle of a very weird tension driven starring contest until eventually Mary Margaret spoke.

"You and Killian know each other." She said, voice level and even saying it like the fact that it was and rather than a question.

"Yes, we went on the field trip today remember? You were there." She fixed her with an unamused expression and Emma sighed. She should have known that the look Mary Margaret had given her in Killian's classroom had meant this. She just hadn't been thinking clearly at the time. Something that keeps on happening in Killian's presence.

"We slept together." She said said, deciding to just put it out there.

"What?!" Mary Margaret nearly screamed, earning a glare from Emma who was worried about the sleeping henry just a few doors down.

"With the children there and everything Emma? When did you manage to sneak off?"

"What? Not today." She said shaking her head. "About a month or two ago we meet at a bar and it happened, and then it happened again, and again. And again." She blushed at the look Mary Margaret was giving her.

"And then I went to parent teacher conference night at Henry's school and imagine my surprise when his teacher is Killian, the guy I've been having casual sex with for the past few weeks." She groaned at hearing it out loud, sinking lower into the couch.

"Emma," Mary Margaret, standing from the chair and instead came over to sit down next to her on the sofa, placing her hand on her arm. "You didn't know."

"I know, but it's just so wrong. And now I keep on running into him, at school _and_ out of school and it's just-" She waved her hand around in front of her face not knowing how to describe how strange the entire situation was.

"Do you have feelings for him?" She asked quietly and tentatively, as if afraid for her answer -or more accurately her reaction to the question.

"What? No." She said, jerking away from her grasp and straightening out on the sofa. Mary Margaret simply gave her a look that told her she certainly didn't believe what she was saying.

"Look, it really was just sex, which I know you don't approve of. But it was good, what we had going it worked. And then this all happened and we've had to spend actual time together now, and I -I don't know. I think if things weren't the way that they were, I could like him."

She admitted, the first time she had even begun to acknowledge that it could be true. And maybe today had proved that, maybe just being with him, spending time together had been enough to make her see that he was someone she could like.

"Emma, I know you think it's wrong, and given the circumstance I don't necessarily disagree. But, if you have feelings for him and he does for you then it's not wrong. He's Henry's fifth grade teacher Emma, it's not like they have enough real grades for it to make a difference on how Mr. Jones would treat him." She shrugged, supposing she was right. She's be lying if she said she hadn't had thought about it herself.

"I can't though Mary Margaret, and not just because of Henry."

"Not everyone is Neal." She said, grabbing her hands and making her look at her.

"Or Graham, or Walsh." She countered, continuing the list of her romantic failures.

"Emma if you think that there's something there, it's worth exploring." Emma stood up, wrenching her hands away from her friends, suddenly angry at her.

"I never said there was anything there Mary Margaret. I said that I could have feelings for him, If I wasn't so messed up, and he wasn't so _him,_ and things weren't like they were. I said I could Mary Margaret, not that I did."

Mary Margaret, visibly flinched at her words, but as she nodded silently and made her way towards the door it was clear she got the picture. Killian was not a subject she wanted to discuss.

"Emma I didn't mean to upset you. I just want you to be happy." She smiled at he friend, letting her know she was forgiven.

"I am happy. And I don't need a hot British school teacher to change that."

"So you do think he's hot!" Mary Margaret said as if she had just won a point for the 'Emma likes Killian' tally board she was likely to make when she got home. She only rolled her eyes.

"I said I don't like him, not that I'm blind." The sound of Mary Margaret's laughs followed her around as she closed the door and washed up for bed, all the while replaying the days and nights event over and over in her head. All the while chanting a mantra in her head, thinking that if she said it enough times it would become true.

 _I don't like him._ She repeated to herself, willing herself to comply with her wish.

 _I don't like him._ She said again, turning off the light and lying down in bed. It was only when her head hit the pillow did she acknowledge the voice of doubt in her head telling her that maybe she did.

* * *

So now they've both admitted (kind of) that they like each other (kind of)! Its progress! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think! Reviews make me happy and motivated!

Also friendly reminder that this story is inspired by and named after the song 'Make You Better' by The Decemberists and if you haven't listened to it, you should. ( watch?v=Xq76aQRmbQA)

Also while I realize I haven't been quite as fast about posting new chapters as I would like (sorry!) each chapter has been significantly longer than the last, so hopefully that makes up for it! Again, hope you enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

"Liam must you always be a giant bloody pain in the arse?" Killian said, grumbling into the phone sitting on the leather sofa in his apartment, not at all in the mood to hear his brother chew him out for bailing on him.

"That is the official job description of brothers." He rolled his eyes as his brother laughed at his own joke and then moved own, back to his point. "And besides, you're the one who's causing the problem. You agreed a week ago to go out with me and Olivia." He rolled his eyes at his brother's new girlfriend. She was nice -they all were to some degree- but he wasn't so convinced that she wasn't a bit crazy. There was just something about her eyes…

"I agreed to go out with _you_ Liam. Not you and your current girlfriend who will no doubt bring one of her friends along in a poor attempt of setting me up with someone. _Again_." He added for angry emphasis. When Liam had invited him out to dinner, he had accepted, he and his brother hadn't been out just the two of them in a while. He really shouldn't have been surprised when it turned out to be another double sat set up courtesy of his brother.

"I don't see what the problem is!" He sighed, rubbing a suddenly tired hand down his face.

"The problem Liam, is that I don't want to be set up with one of Olivia's friends. I don't want to be set up with anyone for that matter. I want to be left alone." That at least seemed to quite Liam for a moment. Until that moment was short lived and ended.

"You're seeing someone aren't you?" He rolled his eyes.

"No Liam, I'm not seeing anyo-"

"No that's it! You're seeing someone, it makes perfect since. You've never liked me setting you up but you used to at least humor me and the date. But the last few times you've been completely uninterested and now you don't even want to try. And it's because you already found someone." He opened his mouth to tell him he was wrong, but closed it, seeing no point to lie to his brother. Liam had learned long ago how to tell if he was lying, and that was not another argument he wanted to start right now.

"I'm not seeing anyone."

"But you want to be." He rolled his eyes at Liam sounding like a school girl. "Who is she, how do you know her, what doe-"

"Liam just because I like her doesn't mean she very well likes me too." His brother snorted on the other side of the line, causing him to frown.

"Please, like any women could ever resist the Killian Jones charm. I have never seen a women, single or otherwise, not show at least some interest in you."

"Well it seems that I've found the only one."

"Oh little brother, will you ever learn? Always chasing after things you can't have." Killian glared, changing the subject before Liam could go further down that path. Some things were better left unsaid.

"Not only do I not want to go with you tonight, but I have other plans."

"You have plans and it's not with me? That's hard to believe, and honestly a bit bruising to the ego. What are you doing?"

"I have friends." He said defensively, before stopping to realize that Liam was mostly right and he really didn't have friends. "Well I'm making friends. A Co-worker invited me to dinner with her and her husband tonight." He still thought it was strange that she had asked him, but he figured she was simply overly polite and had accepted the offer. Both as an excuse to get out of the Liam incident, and for something to do.

"Well now that's surprising."

"Yes, it is hard to believe someone would invite me into their home being the devil and all. Don't worry I'm sure there will be a priest present the entire time."

"You know that's not what I mean Killian. I'm happy you're making friends. You've been here for three years, it's about time you expanded your social circle." He shrugged, not caring that his brother couldn't hear the gesture.

"I should get going, papers to grade and all."

"Fine fine, flake out on your boring brother, and go to your dinner party instead." He rolled his eyes at his brother but wished him a fond day and to send a hello from him along to Olivia. They hung up and Killian went to the kitchen table to tackle the piles of papers sitting on the table.

He wondered what the night would be like, not really knowing what to expect, but curious to find out. Even if the night ended up being a total disaster at least he got out of another double date. And that was something to be grateful for.

* * *

Standing outside the apartment door, struggling to balance two bottles of wine in one hand, awkwardly cradling one bottle with his arm as he raised his other fist to knock, a sudden feeling of unease took control of him.

He paused his hand midway through the air, resting just an inch above the door, before shaking his head feeling the doubt roll off of him -and even if a little hesitance remained he chalked it up to be normal.

It had been a while since someone had invited him over to dinner to just be kind. Liam certainly didn't count, and as far as friends went, well that really _was_ as far as friends went.

Killian scolded himself internally, reasoning that Mary Margaret was far too kind for her own good to invite him over for dinner having only meet a few times, but he wasn't about to turn down her kindness, and her self proclaimed amazing cooking.

His fist finally fell that last inch to the door and he knocked quickly loudly, dropping his hand to take one of the bottles of wine from his hand, fearing he was loosing the battle with gravity.

The door swung open, revealing a smiling Mary Margaret wearing a blue dress that flared at the hip, though it was mostly covered by a floral print apron. She smiled brightly at him, motioning with her hand for him to come in.

"Killian! I'm so glad you could make it, come in please." He smiled and held out the bottles of wine to her.

"Thank you, It was very kind of you to invite me." He stepped inside and Mary Margaret closed the door behind him before taking the bottles from him and thanking him for brining them.

"Happy to have you. I couldn't help but notice you seemed a bit of a loner, and David doesn't have many friends outside of the station, I think you'll get along well." He was rendered confused for a moment, before remembering in a past conversation with the excitable brunette that her husband, David, was a police officer.

"Well I'm excited to meet him."

"He's in the kitchen, just around the corner. I'm going to set the table." She smiled at him again before taking the bottles with her and turning into the room on the left, leaving him to fend for himself. He sighed, thinking that perhaps she was right and he would get along well with David - hopefully, he thought to himself as Mary Margaret had just left him alone with her husband.

He started down the corridor, and as he approached the corner he thought he heard the distinct sound of laughter. Frowning he thought back, only ever hearing Mary Margaret mentioning him being the only guest.

Though as he finally turned the corner entering the kitchen and saw whom the noise of laughter belonged to, he supposed he really shouldn't have been that surprised. It seemed that at the times he least expected her to show up, that was exactly when she did.

Emma, on the other hand seemed to have been very surprised.

She was sitting on the island counter, legs dangling over the edge holding a wine glass in her hand. She looked stunning in a pair of dark jeans, and a black sweater. Her hair was down, tumbling in soft blonde curls over her shoulders, looking like a shining beacon in the glow of the fluorescent lights directly above her.

There was a tall man standing across from her, leaning against the wall talking to her animatedly. He had the look of a police officer to him, Killian thought, or at least someone in an authority position. Standing in a plaid shirt and jeans with a wide stance, shoulders broad and a kind but stern face.

The moment he turned the corner both Emma and David turned to face him, apparently having heard him approach. If Emma's face wasn't so clearly unamused he would have been inclined to laugh.

Surprise filtered quickly through her features, lips parting slightly, eyebrows knotting together in the middle of her forehead before shooting up. David spared her a strange glance -clearly not knowing their history -before coming over to Killian and holding out his hand.

"You must be Killian, I'm David Nolan." Killian shook his hand still a bit dazed from the surprise of seeing Emma there but fought to recover quickly.

"Killian Jones. Nice to meet you." He managed to sputter out, glancing at Emma as he did so, not missing the significant look of anger dawning on her face. He frowned, not knowing why she would be angry with him. He had been just a clueless to Mary Margaret's plan as she had been.

"You as well. My wife's told me a bit about you, it's nice to finally put the name to a face." David looked back and forth between himself and Emma before turning back to Killian, growing confused himself it seemed in sensing something was off between the two of them.

"Like wis-" He started to say but was interrupted by Emma dropping form the counter unceremoniously and stalking towards the dining room.

David looked after her confused before turning to Killian, who shrugged. David started in the same direction as Emma and motioned for him to follow.

When they arrived in the dining room they were meet with a perfectly and pristinely set table, though that really wasn't the main focus of Killian's attention right now.

Mary Margaret stood behind one of the chairs, as if strategically placing it between her and the angry blonde. Emma for her part, did look intimidating. Standing opposite her, hands on her hips, standing in a wide stance, radiating anger in waves.

"Mary Margaret" She started, over articulating every letter. The short haired woman dropped the napkin she was holding and moved quickly around Emma to stand next to her husband.

"David, would you help me check on the chicken?" She didn't wait for a response, pulling him by the hand towards the other room before they disappeared from view completely.

They stood there bathed in an awkward silence, and Killian thought to himself that they should be _past_ this. That the tension, loaded silences, and all around uncomfortableness should be over. They were friends now. Friends could handle being alone with each other for five minutes, they had done fine last week on the field trip.

Granted, he hadn't seen or spoken to her since the zoo trip. Granted he did like her and maybe some longing looks could be put on his shoulders. Granted last time they hadn't been taken by surprise seeing each other.

Last time she hadn't looked upset to see him.

Contemplating something to say that wouldn't make it even more awkward, he was taken by surprise when Emma instead spoke, placing her head in her hands and shaking it back and forth.

"I'm going to kill her." She muttered, he would have thought she was speaking to herself if she hadn't had spoken loudly enough to let him know he was supposed to hear that.

"Pardon love?" He questioned, confused by her sudden desires for murder. He couldn't make her that _angry_ by simply being in her presence, at least he hoped not. She lifted her hand from her hands before sighing and motioning towards the kitchen.

"Mary Margaret." She said, "She- god I can't believe I didn't see this coming, I'm so stupid." She shook her head again.

"Didn't see what coming?"

"It wasn't by chance or accident or coincidence that we were both invited to dinner." She said simply giving him a significant look waiting for him to get the point.

"Oh" He started, wondering why he himself hadn't considered it as an option. When Mary Margaret had invited him over for the mean it was only after the field trip, and she even asked if he had spoken to Emma recently. Besides, it seemed all that people ever wanted from him was to push him towards different people. Granted he didn't mind being pushed towards Emma.

"She was trying to set us up." She nodded. "But why would she do that? I get meddling friends, my brothers a bloody arse about it, but to her knowledge we don't even know each other." Emma broke his gaze, glancing down at her feet before crossing her arms across her chest. The defensive stance apart, the anger seemed to be slightly fading off of her as the conversation continued. While he certainly didn't want her angry, it was clear now that the anger was directed -mostly at least -towards Mary Margaret and not him.

"Actually…" She said letting him draw his now conclusions.

"You told her?" He asked, both of them flinching at his tense tone. He hadn't meant it to sound angry. But it suddenly felt unjust. That Emma wouldn't talk to him about what happened, yet she would talk to her friend about it.

"She guess it actually. She's perspective." He grunted in agreement, though said nothing.

"I still don't understand why she would try to set us up. Just because we-" He motioned between the two of them rather than say something ungentlemanly which earned him a small smile, "-doesn't warrant her to try to set get us to go on some sort of double date."

She blushed looking away from him again trying to cover it, which confused him before something suddenly dawned on him. The sound of the pieces falling into place, of parts coming together, of something making since since this whole things had started, descended upon him with open and welcome arms.

"Swan do you like me?"He said, gaining back his confidence around him and stepping close, invading her personal space. He noticed her deliberate lack of a step back to put distance between them, she instead only looked up to meet his gaze. The blush was gone, but there was instead a fire burning in her eyes.

"No." She responded, as if it were by far the most preposterous thing she had ever head in her _entire_ life, it was a shame it was spoken a second to soon and rushed for him to actually believe him.

"Oh you do Swan don't you? You like me." He wiggled his eyebrows up and down at her, causing her to roll her eyes. He had unconsciously drifted closer to her, which did apparently push her to her limit causing her to take a step back from him. Though it wasn't a big of step as she would have taken a few weeks ago, a small victory, but a victory none the less.

"Look I don't _like_ you okay?" She said putting air quotation marks around the word like.

"Then why did Mary Margaret surprise us both with this fancy romantic date?" He again grinned, starting to enjoy this far too much. Making her squirm was something he had grown to enjoy quite a bit.

"Firstly, I'd hardly call Mary Margaret's apartment fancy. Secondly I don't see any dimmed lighting, candles, or soft music playing in the background so romantic I also won't give you. And the fact that both Mary Margaret and David are also here kind of cancel out the date thing, sorry buddy."

"Deny it all you want Swan, you told your friend you liked me and now she's making us spend time together because you're too bloody stubborn to see it yourself. Emma," He stated, voice abruptly changing, going from his smooth bravado to a more serious and sincere place.

"I-I might have lied to you when I said I thought we should be friends. I have never just wanted to be your friend, not since the moment I saw you. This time I don't just wanna sleep with you, I want to be together. I want us to be together."

He could tell the moment he finished his confession that it was a mistake. Her walls, which he had been so carefully trying to take down brick by god damn brick, was suddenly build back up again in the blink of an eye. Taller than ever before, stretching on for miles, guarded at every foot by a solider with a sword at their side and ready to use it if anyone got too close.

"Look Killian," She said his name like there was something wrong with it, "I told Mary Margaret that I could potentially like you. Not that I did. And _I_ wasn't lying when I said I wanted to be friends, just friends. I apparently was the only one." She didn't look at him, instead storming past him, anger back in place as she moved towards the kitchen, hair moving in the breeze her energy created around her.

He cursed himself, alternating between insulting himself in his head and calling himself a 'bloody idiot' muttering it under his breath. He should have known, he should have been smarter. But he just couldn't hold himself back. The words had fought their way out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to approve their departure.

He called himself an idiot again sighing, shaking his head and heading back to the kitchen. The night suddenly much worse than the prospect ever seemed.

* * *

Dinner itself proved to not be too terrible. It turned out that Mary Margaret was as excellent a cook as she had said and he happily ate the food that was placed in front of him. Sitting at the rectangular dining table with the Nolan's on one side and Killian and Emma sitting next to each other on the other, it truly had felt like a double date.

It would have felt like a good date however, had Emma not been so obviously mad at him. A fact that was quickly picked up on by the newly accentuated angel in Killian's eyes Mary Margaret, who quickly swooped in to fill any awkward silences. The blonde was fairly quiet the entire meal, only speaking when asked a direction question, mainly focusing on her food or the table in front of her, or the wall behind her friends -though possibly now _ex_ friends head as she was still evidently mad at Mary Margaret too -head.

One part of the evening did go well surprisingly. Mary Margaret had bene correct in thinking that Killian and her husband would get along. After everyone sat down, starting eating, and tried to get past the obvious lingering tension between his and Emma's interaction, it seemed that David had the same idea as his wife and quickly fell into a pattern of asking Killian questions about his life and interests to fill in lulls in the conversation.

Killian liked the man almost immediately, the way he held himself and spoke reminding him of Liam. If nothing else came of the evening -other than a good home cooked meal, and you know, possibly ruining things for good with Emma -at least it seemed that he had earned a new friend.

It was when the happy couple stood up and against the protests of both Killian and Emma cleared the table and went to wash the dishes by themselves, that they were left alone for the first time again.

He looked at Emma hoping to catch her staring at him too, but instead saw her with her long hair acting as a solid tangible wall between the two of them, and in her hand she clutched her phone, scrolling through something as if he life depended on it. He sighed, deflating in his chair a bit, not knowing quite how to handle the situation.

He knew that she had been burned badly in the past before. She had said as much when they first meet, and also in her refusal to trust anyone. Her past in the foster system aside, she had been hurt in her life by someone before badly. He had too, but she had somehow tore down his walls faster then he apparently could tear down hers. Or hopefully tear them down he corrected himself.

"Emma-" He started, the second he started speaking, she froze, hand stopping its furious movement.

"I'd really rather not do this." Her voice was quite, face still hidden, but she wasn't demanding he not speak to her, she wasn't commanding him. It was more of a request, a plea.

He opened his mouth again, and then closed it, listening in the absolute all defining silence that his lips popping together sounded like a gun shot.

"As you wish." He said instead, biting back his reasoning to just trust him, biting back his always present instinct to fight for what he wanted, and instead put it to rest, put it to sleep, and turned off the lights.

If Emma wasn't ready then fine, okay. Unfortunate and frustrating on his behalf, but fine, he could wait until she was ready to hear his confessions. Or until she figured out that she didn't want to hear them all together.

Mary Margaret and David returned shortly after that, having taken far too long to have washed their four plates but long enough to ensure that if the two of them were having a heart to hear they weren't interrupting. When they returned to find the room in an even more tense atmosphere than it had been when they left, Mary Margaret's face feel slightly, her most recent plan to get them together having not worked either.

"Is everyone up for dessert?" She asked instead of commenting, to which David squeezed her hand apparently appreciating her choice.

"I should go." Emma responded, almost the second after her friend finished speaking. She stood up and placed her phone in her back pocket before starting to head towards the front door. Looking for the life of her like she just wanted to get the hell out of here.

"You don't want to stay?" The brunette asked, her pink lips turning down.

"As much as I would _love_ to stay-" Her inflection on the word love clearly expressing her desires to do anything but just that "It's getting late, and Henry's baby sitter can't stay all night." She finished staring at her dangerously, daring her to question her motives.

Which judging by the faces all around the room -and the fact that it wasn't yet even nine o'clock -everyone was doing, though wisely no one mentioned it.

"Well, we're glad you could come Emma." David said stepping towards her for a minute, before thinking better of it and returning to his spot by his wife.

"I'll see you on Wednesday?" Mary Margaret asked, her tone implying that she wasn't so confident that this was likely to be true.

"Sure." Emma said, bidding a goodbye to both Nolan's and not even glancing in Killian's direction. Mary Margaret watched Emma head towards the door with a frown on her face, before she followed her to the door until they were both out of sight.

He and David both stood in silence listening curiously as at first there was nothing to be heard, until something that could only be described an an angry whisper scream -or a whisper that had escalated to a scream out of anger and was doing a very valiant but ultimately bad job of keeping their voice quite -could be heard. Coming from Emma, while the entire conversation couldn't be heard, it was clear what the gist of it was.

I can't believe you did that. _Why_ did you do that. No really I don't like him and I'm not so certain I like you now.

Killian gulped as he heard the door slam shut behind her leaving. Rather than Mary Margaret reappear, he instead heard a pair of angry feet make their way to the opposite side of the apartment, where he guess the bedroom resided.

"So I'm guessing you're not really in the mood for dessert?" Killian chuckled at David, letting some of the stress out.

"You would be correct mate." David shot him a look that was something close to sympathy, before he took a breathe.

"Look I- I know it's not my place, certainly not after what my wife just did, but if it makes any difference I've known Emma for years. Know her at her worst when she wouldn't even let Mary Margaret be her friend. It took her years to warm up to her, and another long time to warm up to me. She's guarded beyond belief, and that's just with her friends. The only reason she's refusing you so much is because she likes you." He sighed, glancing in the direction of the door again, "Weather or not she admits it, is another thing entirely."

Killian nodded, grateful for the man's advice.

"Well at the moment she seems rather hell bent on denying it." David chuckled deeply, shaking his head.

"Give her time Killian, she'll come around." He nodded again.

"it seems that the party's over, wouldn't want to over stay my welcome." Killian said moving towards the front door and pulling on his jacket, listening as David followed him.

"Thank you for having me, all things considered I had a nice time." David smiled at him, "Please tell you wife thank you for me again." David nodded.

"I'm not quite sure if she deserves the praise." He rolled his eyes as he said it, letting he know he was -mostly -joking. Killian shrugged.

"While her methods maybe have proved to be unfruitful, she was trying to do what she thought was right for her friend."

"That she was." he stuck out his hand, which Killian took and shook as it was offered to him. "Goodnight Killian."

"Night David." He said waving as David closed the door for him, waiting in the hallway even after the door was close and locked. He took a moment to collect himself, not quite sure what to to think of the evenings events, before turning out of the hallway and made his way down the stairs and out the door.

He pulled the jacket closer around him, night having fallen while he was inside and with it came the cold. He made to cross the street, heading towards his car that was parked on the side of the road, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of yellow. He turned his head, seeing Emma's bug parked just a few car spaces over to his left, on the side of Mary Margaret's building. Leaning against the side of the bug, with her head thrown back, eyes closed was Emma herself, looking horribly upset.

He tried not to, tried to resist, or maybe perhaps he just was trying to make himself feel better, let himself think that if he wanted to he could resist her. That he was strong enough to do that. But alas, he wasn't.

Before he could think about what he was doing, his legs were carrying him over to her car, feet moving quickly, one in front of the other, cold completely forgotten, until he was standing directly in front of her, only a few feet away.

"Swan?" He said softly, to which she opened her eyes and straighten up to look at him. She didn't look as angry, he noted hopefully. Rather than anger, it seemed that now she was just upset and unhappy.

"Killian I-" She started, but he stopped her before she could turn him down, or reject him.

"I wanted to apologize." That seemed to surprise her. He waited, seeing if she would tell him off or simply walk away, but instead she gave him a small nod, letting him know it was okay to continue.

"I wanted to apologize for what I said. Not what I meant but the way that I said it, and even that I said it to begin with. It was rash, and in the heat of the moment, but it seems that when I'm around you I don't think so clearly love." He smiled softly at her, watching as she mimicked him, gracing him with a slight upturn of her lips and the straighten of her posture even more.

"I know the feeling." She responded. He stare at her only slightly confused that she was now being kind to him, but quickly pushed confusion away and let it be replaced with happiness.

"I wanted to apologize too." She said gesturing to the car. "I was building up the courage to come back upstairs when you came down. I shouldn't have acted the way I did. It was stupid and immature, and I'm just, I'm sorry."

"All's forgiven Swan." He said, noticing that one of the worry lines on her forehead slowly disappeared as he spoke.

"And," She started again, sighing before looking up at him and meeting his gaze. "I was mainly mad because you were right. I didn't want to say it, but I do. Like you that is. I was just scared, and hearing you say it scared me even more." She glanced away when he didn't respond.

"I-" He fumbled over his words for a moment, struggling to think of an adequate response to her. "I didn't mean to scare you love." She looked back at him, the doubt suddenly gone from her face, replaced by a confidence that hadn't been there a moment ago, as if she had made up her mind about something.

"Good." She said smiling, and before he could think, before he could even begin to process what was going on, Emma's hands reached out tugging on his jacket lapels, pulling him forward until his lips collided with hers.

He stood frozen for a minute, not really believing what was happening, before his mind raced to catch up and he moved closer to her, eagerly returning the kiss. He sighed into her lips, feeling her open her lips to him. Her hands had moved from his jacket to come around his neck and rest in his hair. His hands were everywhere. On her hips, on her sides, on her back, he couldn't keep them still. running them in a constant loop on whoever he could find.

The kiss wasn't short and sweet or demure, it was full of fire and passion rather than the soft intimate confession of their feelings for each other that had just happened. She tugged on his bottom lip with her teeth, earning a groan from him. He backed her up even more, not stopping until her body was plastered to the side of her car. They continued on for a minute, both impatient and insistent, until they finally broke apart to catch their breaths.

They stayed close though, only separating enough so that they could look at each other.

"I think that it would be wise if we stopped." he finally said, hating to break the silence. In response she raised her eye brow, a silent question of _really?_

"I told you Swan, I not interested in just sleeping with you. I want to bloody date you." She smiled at him.

"Well if that's the case than I have to warn you." He hummed, enjoying her flirtatious tone.

"About what darling?"

"My three date rule." He resisted the urge to chuckle.

"We haven't even had one date and you've slept with me multiple times." She spared a -he hoped a mostly -joking glare in his direction before explaining.

"Thank you for the reminder. And I mean for people I actually like, for people who are dates and not just people to hook up with." He did chuckle this time.

"I'd happily wait a hundred dates if It meant going on a hundred dates with you and nothing else Emma." he relished in the pretty blush that crept up her neck and cheeks at her words. She leaned in to kiss him again, this one far less dramatic as all she had to do was move her head a few inches, but just as enjoyable. This one was more lazy, softer and slower. One that did reflect the conversation they were having, unlike the last frenzied kiss.

She pulled away quickly, and then lightly pushed him back and he obliged stepping away enough that she had enough space to move when she wished to. She looked at him for a moment, a smile playing on her lips, and her eyes lighting up in a way he hadn't seen before. She looked happy, he thought suddenly, and he mimicked her smile, loving that he was the reason for her smile.

"Goodnight Killian." She said moving around to the drivers seat of the car.

"Goodnight Emma." She smiled at him before getting in, starting the car, and driving away.

He stood there for a moment, like a bloody fool starring in the direction that she had gone, with his hands pressed to his lips remembering the feeling of hers and smiling like an idiot. But for now it wasn't important, he didn't care, Emma Swan liked him, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

When he got home later that night, he pulled out his phone and for the first time since he had received the number, sent out a text.

 ** _I hope you know I was joking about waiting 100 dates. Waiting that long is likely to kill a bloody man_**

When she didn't respond the second he hit the send button, he thought it was a mistake. Went around his apartment cursing himself to all the seven seas for being such a sodding idiot until his phone beeped and he saw her response.

 ** _And I hope you know we've already had two dates. The first the zoo, the second tonight. Better have something real special planned for number three_**

"Bloody Hell" He whispered to himself standing alone in the middle of the apartment. his mind raced thinking over the past twenty four hours events, thanking every single god that was listening that he had decided to go to the Nolan's.

* * *

Sorry for the wait! A new job has me busy, but I'm still making time for this story, don't worry!

Anyways, they kissed! What did you guys think? A few people guessed that Mary Margaret would play match maker which just seemed to perfect to ignore. I would also like to point out that the start of Captain Charming is just as important to me as the kiss. (I have a might Captain Charming obsession)

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and in the next one (which will hopefully be posted sooner than this one was, again sorry!) we'll get to see Emma's reaction to the kiss and a date? Possibly?! Really who knows?!


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